"The parable of those who take protectors apart from God is that of the spider that makes a house. Truly the frailest of houses is the spider's house, if they but knew. Truly God knows whatsoever they call upon apart from Him. And He is the Mighty, the Wise. These are the parables; We set them forth for mankind. But none understand them, save those who know."
Quran 29:41-43
The opening verse is one of the most famous in the Quran, and it is what gave the name to surah 29, usually simply identified as "The Spider." I'll come back to that later (yeah, I know, I say that a lot, and occasionally I do). However, at this point I'd rather focus on verse 43: "These are the parables; We set them forth for mankind. But none understand them, save those who know." On the most basic level this verse is talking about the parable of the spider, but also more generally about other parables revealed throughout the Quran. As Nasr informs us in the related commentary from the Study Quran, "Similarly, 59:21 states that God sets forth parables for mankind, that haply they may reflect." That is, God could have simply told us what to do, but that the very human act of reflection is an essential part of the process, and forcing us to parse through a parable is part of the process. Yesterday I made the point that, to me anyway, the messiness is the divinity, so not surprisingly I was drawn to this passage.
Nasr quotes al-Tustari who concluded:
"God sets forth the parables for mankind in general, since those things that bear witness to power point to the Powerful. But none understands them, save His elect. Thus knowledge is rare and comprehension of God even rarer. Whosoever attains knowledge by himself through his natural self is delude. And whosoever comes to know Him through the knowledge of God, God knows what He Himself desired for him. The creature has no knowledge of the truth beyond that. This allusion [to the parables] was made due to the distance of hearts from the knowledge of reality."
And, of course, things now get even messier (and thus more divine?). The point al-Tustari seems to be making is that dissecting the parables through cold reason alone can lead you astray, and that you need to tackle them "through the knowledge of God." So, then are the parables a sucker's bet? I mean, they are designed to get you to a specific location, right? I remember talking to my students about video games and the freedom (and sense of accomplishment and ownership for the player) that they inculcated as compared to those who read novels growing up (I loved to read, but it never occurred to me that I was actually going to change the narrative of David Copperfield), but my students pointed out that the game actually produced a false freedom because the designer had a very definitive goal in mind with you - and the best you could do is wander around a bit. So, are parables simply video games with less impressive graphics? God is using parables to a) tell you things in a different way and hope that you'll understand one of them (as a teacher I understand this concept completely) and b) hope that in the process of sorting through things you'll actually learn something and be better prepared to sort out similar problems in the future - but in either instance there is a definite answer in mind.
Quran 29:41-43
The opening verse is one of the most famous in the Quran, and it is what gave the name to surah 29, usually simply identified as "The Spider." I'll come back to that later (yeah, I know, I say that a lot, and occasionally I do). However, at this point I'd rather focus on verse 43: "These are the parables; We set them forth for mankind. But none understand them, save those who know." On the most basic level this verse is talking about the parable of the spider, but also more generally about other parables revealed throughout the Quran. As Nasr informs us in the related commentary from the Study Quran, "Similarly, 59:21 states that God sets forth parables for mankind, that haply they may reflect." That is, God could have simply told us what to do, but that the very human act of reflection is an essential part of the process, and forcing us to parse through a parable is part of the process. Yesterday I made the point that, to me anyway, the messiness is the divinity, so not surprisingly I was drawn to this passage.
Nasr quotes al-Tustari who concluded:
"God sets forth the parables for mankind in general, since those things that bear witness to power point to the Powerful. But none understands them, save His elect. Thus knowledge is rare and comprehension of God even rarer. Whosoever attains knowledge by himself through his natural self is delude. And whosoever comes to know Him through the knowledge of God, God knows what He Himself desired for him. The creature has no knowledge of the truth beyond that. This allusion [to the parables] was made due to the distance of hearts from the knowledge of reality."
And, of course, things now get even messier (and thus more divine?). The point al-Tustari seems to be making is that dissecting the parables through cold reason alone can lead you astray, and that you need to tackle them "through the knowledge of God." So, then are the parables a sucker's bet? I mean, they are designed to get you to a specific location, right? I remember talking to my students about video games and the freedom (and sense of accomplishment and ownership for the player) that they inculcated as compared to those who read novels growing up (I loved to read, but it never occurred to me that I was actually going to change the narrative of David Copperfield), but my students pointed out that the game actually produced a false freedom because the designer had a very definitive goal in mind with you - and the best you could do is wander around a bit. So, are parables simply video games with less impressive graphics? God is using parables to a) tell you things in a different way and hope that you'll understand one of them (as a teacher I understand this concept completely) and b) hope that in the process of sorting through things you'll actually learn something and be better prepared to sort out similar problems in the future - but in either instance there is a definite answer in mind.
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